Ms. Mearns entered the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of New York City Ballet, full time in the fall of 2001. In the fall of 2003 Ms. Mearns became an apprentice with New York City Ballet. As an apprentice, Ms. Mearns danced a featured role in Michel Fokine’s Chopiniana, performed by SAB as part of New York City Ballet’s 2004 winter season. In June of 2004, Ms. Mearns joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet. In March of 2006 she was promoted to soloist. In June 2008 Ms. Mearns was promoted to principal dancer.
She performed in NYCB’s Education Department lectures in January of 2003. Ms. Mearns also danced on a performance tour with North Carolina Dance Theatre in the winter of 1999. Ms. Mearns is a 2003 recipient of the Mae L. Wien Award for Outstanding Promise and a 2003 nominee for the Princess Grace Award.
Sara Mearns is an exceptionally talented American ballerina who dances as a principal dancer for the New York City Ballet. She is in conversation with Namita Nayyar, President Women Fitness.
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All Written Content Copyright © 2016 Women Fitness
Ms. Namita Nayyar: Your dance training started at the age of three with Ann Brodie at the Calvert-Brodie School of Dance in Columbia. At the age of 13 you were trained with Patricia McBride at Dance Place, the School of North Carolina Dance Theatre, in Charlotte. You reached your pinnacle of success in ballet dancing when you became the principal dancer with New York City Ballet and later performed the lead in Swan Lake. Tell us about your professional dance journey from your childhood to reaching ‘New York City Ballet’ ?
Ms. Sara Mearns: I have trained since I was 3, and I was put on pointe when I was 7 1/2. That has made me the strong dancer I am today and prepared me for a huge role such a Swan Lake. That was and still is my favorite ballet since I was 7. I know the story backwards and forwards and have done a lot of research. I owe a lot to my director for giving me a chance at such a huge role at such a young age. It was his way of seeing if I had it in me to be something greater. Everything leading up to that moment since I was 3 factored into my ability to tackle such a challenge. My mother, the schools i went to including School of American Ballet, Calvert-Brodie in SC, and Dance Place in Charlotte NC. All my teachers gave me the tools I needed to become the ballerina I am today.
Ms. Namita Nayyar: What exercises comprise your fitness regime or workout routine you shall like to share?
Ms. Sara Mearns: I am a huge fan of Gyrotonics. It has been part of my regime and rehab from injuries since I became a professional. I would recommend it 1-2 times a week at most. You can get very sore from it, so you have to allow your muscles and spine adjust with ease. I also have a stretching regime that I do every single morning that focuses around stretching my hips, psoaz, calfs, and butt muscles. This is all crucial to keeping my back long and relaxed. I have had some terrible back injuries that were muscle related and this prevents any relapses.
Ms. Namita Nayyar: Do you take some special diet or have a strict menu that you follow to remain healthy and physically fit?
Ms. Sara Mearns: I try to keep all food groups in my diet and keep sweet things and sugar to a minimum. It’s all about balance and keeping my muscles strong and nourished. I eat lots of sushi, roasted chicken, all vegetables, dark green leaf salads such as kale or spinach, and love all types of berries, pineapple and bananas. I don’t like to eat the “meal bars”, I find they have too much sugar and extra carbs that I don’t need. I would rather have a small portion of pasta to keep my energy going. I love to have nuts, Greek yogurt, coconut water, smart water, one coke zero, and sometimes granola in my dressing room. I always eat pasta the night before I have a really really hard day. I also have red meat on a weekly basis.
Videos
| Sara Mearns on WomenFitness: Thank you to Women Fitness for allowing to pour my heart out and hopefully help others who need guiding. I am constantly learning everyday about my fitness and health and it’s great to have a platform such as this to get answers and find inspiration to move forward. |
Ms. Namita Nayyar: You have glowing skin and gorgeous hair. Do you take some kind of skin treatment to keep it young and glowing and secondly what you do to your hair to make them look so stunning?
Ms. Sara Mearns: To be honest, I am huge on not using a lot of products on your hair and skin. Less is more for me. I use Pantene for my hair, wash every 2 days. I use Cetaphil for face wash and neutrogena face wipes to take off my stage makeup. I may occasionally use face lotion from kiehls. I may have to change this as I get older but for now that’s working. I also don’t use a lot of everyday makeup, maybe some shimmer on my cheeks from Laura Mercier and L’oreal mascara.
Ms. Namita Nayyar: Advice and motivational words to the inspiring and budding professional ballet dancing girls who all are your fans and shall like to know from you for their climb to ladder of success in the field professional ballet dancing?
Ms. Sara Mearns: Don’t try to be like the girl next to you. Fly across the room as if you were performing for a huge audience. Don’t be timid in class and stand in the back. So what if you don’t have her legs or turn out. Maybe your jump or turns aren’t as flashy, but you can move and dance circles around them because in the end, when you are 40, all those things might be gone and what’s left is your soul and passion for what ballet is. Ballet is an artform, not a gymnastic competition.
We are here to express through movement; to tell a story, to create a magical world for the audience that they will never ever experience again. Find your voice, your artistry, your uniqueness and someone will see, and that someone might be the director of your dream company. You never know what will catch someone’s eye. What do you want the audience to take away from watching you dance?
Videos
Ms. Namita Nayyar: Who has been your inspiration and motivation in choosing ballet dancing as your profession?
Ms. Sara Mearns: My mom put me in ballet at age 3. It became my life from a very early age. I want to say life choose this life for me. That’s corny but true. Not everyone is cut out for this type of profession. You have to see and feel beyond yourself. Everyone and everything I have encountered along the way has had a hand in my motivation and inspiration to become the ballerina I am today. That includes all the good and the bad. I did not choose this life, life choose it for me. I am the luckiest girl in the world.
Ms. Namita Nayyar: You suffered a back injury and were forced to take eight months off from dancing. How you were able to overcome such a physical injury/setback and what advice you can give to fellow ballet dancers in a similar situation?
Ms. Sara Mearns: The topic of injuries is a bitter sweet and very emotional. My last back injury was the most heart wrenching, painful, most beautiful thing that could have happened to me. It actually saved me personally and physically from a very bad downward spiral. It took away my livelihood but gave me confidence, maturity, and the Sara Mearns I want to be. I will never forget the moment I stepped on stage in my performance back with tears in my eyes, thanking my body for what it has given me and what it will give me for years to come. Your body is smarter than you are, and it doesn’t lie to you.
You also have to find the right person to take care of it when it is down. Your instinct will tell you, and your body will react or it won’t. You will have a new profound respect for life, you, and your artform when you return. When something so valuable is taken away with no real proof of what the future will bring you, you then learn how special and delicate life really is, so take care of it.
Ms. Namita Nayyar: What you wish to say about the website Womenfitness.net and message for its visitors?
Ms. Sara Mearns: Thank you to Women Fitness for allowing to pour my heart out and hopefully help others who need guiding. I am constantly learning everyday about my fitness and health and it’s great to have a platform such as this to get answers and find inspiration to move forward.
To know more about Sara Mearns check out at: http://www.nycballet.com/Dancers/Dancers-Bios/Sara-Mearns.aspx
To know latest about Sara Mearns check out on her social networks:
- https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sara-Mearns/391096107613043
- https://twitter.com/nycbstar2b
- http://instagram.com/saramearns
Women Fitness Team thanks Sara Mearns for giving her valuable time for this interview and quenching the thirst of her fans to know more about her and made this interview happen.
Videos
https://youtube.com/watch?v=9ziQoxo56H0
All content on this site is copyright of Women Fitness and no part of any article found on this site may be reproduced without an express permission and highlighted, do follow link crediting http://www.womenfitness.net/ or preferably the original page as the source. This interview is exclusive and taken by Namita Nayyar President womenfitness.net and should not be reproduced, copied or hosted in part or full anywhere without an express permission.
All Written Content Copyright © 2016 Women Fitness